Mt. Pleasant Scribblers meet

The regional writer’s group, Mt. Pleasant Scribblers, met Monday, April 17, 2023, at 1 p.m. in the gathering space of the Mt. Pleasant Presbyterian Church, 902 S. Walnut Street.

Those present included Kathy Wiley, Marilyn Vincent, Rita Davis, Kathy Casteel, Karen Osborne, Ann Porter, Rita Davis, and Martha Wiley.

Claudia Streeter shared that the latest issue of Time magazine had short biographies for 100 people the editors considered “influencers” for the past year. Some of the people featured were familiar and others were not, and she questioned the group about what they felt it would take to be considered influential.

Kathy Casteel had challenged herself to complete specific writing exercises. She wrote a ghost/love story using only 20 words. She drafted a letter from her 8-year-old self to her 2023 self. She also wrote advice from herself at age 82 to her current day self. Both encouraged her to buy a camper and follow her dreams!

Martha Wiley read a letter that she had sent to her Harlan fourth-grade pen pal.

It was appropriate that today was “National Haiku Poetry Day” because Kathy Wiley had written three haiku poems for her journal. Each little entry was shown in her book along with a companion photograph.

Marilyn Vincent’s book group had just discussed “Lessons in Chemistry” about a gifted woman researcher who was consistently undervalued in her profession. This caused her to reminisce about her own mother’s life and pursuit of vocational recognition. Thinking through her mother’s variety of occupations gave her fresh respect for the resilience and intelligence required to persevere.

After emerging from a recent traffic incident, Rita Davis wrote about driving mishaps from her early beginnings handling farm equipment to collisions and close scrapes of many kinds.

Ann Porter shared her progress in preparing to down-size before her next move. “Stuff’n Things” described the feeling of a burden lifted when she selects items for disposal or donation. As she goes through this process, it is interesting that items having the most value to her are not necessarily those that had the highest price tag.

“Honor” by Karen Osborne tells the story of Stan, a 92-year-old veteran leaving Hannibal, Missouri, joining an Honor Flight to Washington, D.C. After the wonderful experience, Stan was ready for a good three days of rest before returning to life as usual.

Scribblers are pleased to welcome new members who are interested in being part of a group, sharing efforts in the craft of writing. The next regular meeting, at 1 p.m., Monday, May 15, will be in the gathering space at the north entrance of the First Presbyterian Church, 902 S. Walnut, Mt. Pleasant. For more information, contact Karen Osborne, 319-367-5586.